Cheap and Chalu

Yesterday I happened to discover a part of Chennai, which changed (not completely thou ) my perception about the city. I happened to meet a college friend who is now working in one of the top Indian IT companies based at Chennai. Soon after we met, I started listing all complaints that I had against the city. He promised me that we would make sure that he would change this sad image of the city to a certain extent.
It was around 5 o clock in the evening, and we hit the roads of Chennai on a Royal Enfield Thunderbird. A cloudy sky, a cool breeze, cleaner roads… Chennai changed itself completely in no time. We were on Old Mahabalipuram Road, a lane with all glassy buildings and posh high rise complexes, which are home to most IT companies.
The next destination for us was Besant Nagar Beach. I found it to be better than Marina both in terms of cleanliness and crowd. This place draws a lot of young and happening crowd and I could finally found people to “check-out”.
Though it was real nice to be there, we planned not to spend much time at one place. We went to a nearby “Fruit Shop” (popular juice shops, at most parts of Chennai) picked up good healthy drinks and then went to Kalaskhetra, a place for Dance,craft and other Art forms; something which I could compare with Shantiniketan.
The next part of the journey was something I didn’t expect, it took barely half an hour and we found ourselves detached from the city traffic. A nice winding road, with a left turn every half a kilometer leading to some beach or the other, like Pebble Beach, Juhu Beach and many more. Popular as ECR – East Coast Road connects Chennai to Mammalapuram (Mahabalipuram) and Pondicherry. It’s lined with number of beach resorts and restaurants for people to relax during weekends after a hectic run through the week.
Then we went to a beautiful village called Kovallam, right when it was beating the dusk. It was again a scenic beauty to cherish. View of sun set, never ending sea, sand, breeze and the cruise bike (reaching 3-digit speeds every other second) really made my day.
Then we drove a little further ahead till we realised that the fuel is reaching the reserve mark, we decided to get back to the usual crowd but with a fresh mind and a more positive opinion about the city. We just made one stop in between to pick up some snacks at an F1 based eatery called Pit-Stop. Even that wasn’t too bad either
No matter how much the city sweats, smells and eats curd rice, it also host places with such scenic beauties that one can literally unwind.

Having someone famous (actually more famous than you are) with the same name as you can be quite an experience at times. My name is Prasoon Joshi. Nah, I’m not that guy from O&M, I do write lyrics but I didn’t write for RDB or Hum Tum.

I recently accepted a few invitations pending in my inbox and created a profile on facebook, didn’t get a decent pic to put up as my profile display pic and people started sending me messages and friend request thinking that I may be some long lost friend from IMT, Ghaziabad or I may be interested in helping them out with their online strategy.

Well, folks here’s the lesson to learn from this: Famous people already have a big ’social network’ (which they are mostly trying to keep away from) and they don’t certainly need to join some ’social networking website’ cuz they already have a rather ‘big social circle’. I’ve still not put up any photo in my facebook profile, its kinda fun to read all those messages, and I’m not impersonating so I guess its totally a legal thing!!!

This may come as a surprise to most of you but this is true. When signing up for a Blogger account, you check a box saying that “I agree to all the terms and conditions”, what we forget to read in the fine print is that whatever our blogs carry in it becomes the property of google.com and we cant sell it without a prior permission from the company. This means that if your blog starts to make money and you find a suitable buyer who wants to own it along with all the content, google prohibits you from making such a deal (without its share in the profits perhaps).

This is quite an old mail, one that I found in my inbox. And the study outlined here is quite interesting.

O lny srmat poelpe can raed this.

Cdnuolt blveiee that I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd what I was

Rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch

At Cmabrigde Uinervtisy,

It deosn’t mttaer in what oredr the ltteers in a word are, the

Olny iprmoatnt tihng is that the first and last ltteer be in

The rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can still

Raed it wouthit a porbelm.

This is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by

Istlef, but the word as a wlohe. Amzanig huh? Yaeh and I awlyas

Tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt!

Watching Television is perhaps the best way to learn the ‘law of contradictory conveniences’. To explain what that means consider this. Imagine Lata Mangeshkarji singing the all famous song of the century, ‘Aie mere watan ke logon’ in a concert. Also sharing the stage is Mr. Bal Thakre, yes the man of the ‘kill the UP and Biharis in Maharashtra’ fame, and he stands up to honor the line which says, “kya sikh, kya jaat, maratha … sarhad pe marne wala har veer tha bharat wasi” (all the brave souls who died on the borders protecting the sanctity of Mother India and the lives of those living here may have come from different parts of India but were all sons of a united nation, all were one at heart). For such politicians, convenience is all that matter. Their own word, their own loyalty towards anything is just an illusion, so carefully woven around their ‘conveniences’. The all important real ‘issue’ is always just the welfare of their ‘conveniences’, in India there are no other issues. We are a peaceful set of people, rich with resources and talents, there are no ‘issues’ here, just political drama fuelled by the hype created by the disillusioned media.

June 5th is celebrated as World Environmental Day, where every citizen on the globe takes a pledge to conserve energy, protect plants and animals and act more responsibly to save Mother Earth from deteriorating. Popular as 3 ‘R’s – Reduce, Recycle and Reuse is the slogan for everyone. This year I was waiting to watch if we do something new, something better, and something more efficient to create a greater impact in an effort to do some good for our planet.
Today on the front page of newspaper I read an article; a notice from the BEE (Bureau of Energy Efficiency) making it mandatory for fluorescent tubelights, air conditioners, refrigerators and motors (which are currently under a voluntary program) and voluntary for the products like color Televisions, computer monitors, washing machines, CFL bulbs, LPG stoves, set top boxes, water heaters, water pumps, uninterrupted power supply systems and battery chargers to have “ENERGY LABELS”.
This means that manufacturer will have to disclose the power consumption of each appliance, and based on the product category and the power consumption, BEE will provide a “star rating” varying between 1 to 5 (5 being the best). And the companies need to put this star rating on the product for customers to check and make a wise decision.
Not just this, BEE is also starting the “star rating labels” for all motors vehicles based on their fuel effeciency. Especially with the fuel prices rising every now and then, this would be of greater help to the customers than the glossy brochures at all showrooms.
Now coming to the advantages of this:
1. The customer will have huge benefits, as this will give them one more parameter to judge a product and make a better investment. Buying a product is a one time investment, but then these electrical appliances do have an impact on our monthly electricity bills, so customer would prefer buying a product which could help him tone down his electricity expenses along with other necessary features.
2. It would be an open competition for all the manufactures, who generally try to beat each other on the basis of features, to concentrate on power consumption as well. It will also bring in new technology and innovation in energy conservation techniques.
3. BEE estimates that the collective impact of this would result in national energy saving upto 976 MW by 2011. It plans to raise the bar for securing the same rating over time, pushing the manufacturers to improve technology and edge out bad performers.

So this indeed looks like one to the best energy conservation plans that I have come across of late and is promising too. Hope we, both as individual and as a nation, reap maximum benefits out of this scheme and make our planet a better place to live.

Tracking the newspapers these days, I believe the major share of it goes to articles related to Aarushi murder case, IPL( still articles on front pages, thanks to Mohammed Asif, the editorials, and obviously the sport section; and I believe it will have its presence till the fad dies off), the oil prices, and loads of blah..
But there were two articles which I made me think a little. First was an appeal to all youngsters to “focus on their studies as well, particularly on spoken English as it would help them getting better jobs if they do not turn into good cricketers. Sehwag in his initial days faced a lot of difficulty in speaking English while he interacted with the anchor person after winning Man-of-the-Match awards. But later he practised quite a bit and now able to speak fluent English though making some grave grammatical mistakes here and there.”
Think about it, I realised how relevant and important this statement is. Come to think of it, imagine so many children venture out in an effort to become Sachin Tendulkar, and be tagged “Men in blue”, but how many of them finally make into Team India, a handful of them; so what happens others? Some manage to make it to the State teams and play Ranji and continue their effort to impress the selectors, but other who lose this battle fall apart. People who have a decent educational background manage to find jobs and come to the main stream but people who have even sacrificed their education for the sake of a career in cricket, are left no where.
An extreme case, I remember a year back, Subhas Dixit (former under-19 captain) committed suicide by jumping over a high rise near the Green Park Cricket stadium (the place where he might have dreamt of playing wearing the national jersey) in Kanpur.
Hope all young aspirants lend there ears to this message from Sehwag and understand the serious implications behind it.
Second thing that struck me was an initiative taken by an NGO at Villupuram, Tamil Nadu. Looking at the alarming rate of dropouts and very low literacy levels among the Muslims, the NGO has started paying Re one every day to students attending state run elementary school at a village called Sankarapuram. The area supposedly a Muslim dominated region with Tamil or Urdu as their mother tongue. So the scheme was launched at Urdu medium Panchayat Union elementary School.
At a time when the cost of education is increasing day by day, if NGOs and other organisations don’t take up steps like these; poor people especially in economically backward areas would back-out from even primary education. So let’s try to encourage such initiatives and help in increasing the literacy level which will give a big boost to all our national development plans.

In mid April, the MBA students of National Insurance Academy headed to Bangkok for an education tour. The technical learning was focused on the differences in practises in the India and other matured insurance markets. Thailand a country with a population of 650 million has over 75 gerenal insurance and 25 life insurance companies. Though a series of lecturers from representatives from noted insurance companies, brokers and re-insurers we got a glimpse of operations and spread of Thai insurance market.
But alongside all these we learnt a little about Thai culture as well. The hallmark for us, of course, has been the Thai tradition of water throwing as a part of their New Year “Song kran” celebration and no one could stop comparing it with our Holi celebrations. Thai new year celebrations last for three days and the entire population either visits their native homes in the countryside or hit the streets with buckets, mugs, or plastic water shotguns and what not. Few areas are popular sites for water fight, hundreds of people gather out and celebrate this festival is true spirit. Some people carry drums filled with ice cold water and go all round the city.
The only thing missing were the colour, wish I could have explained it to them and added another dimension to gala celebrations.

I remember when I was young, I read that the vehicle which we normally use and term as “bus” derives its name from Omnibus (English plural omnibuses), a Latin word meaning “for all, for everyone”, And now you know why we need to appreciate the person who named the vehicle so.

Well most of us have had loads of experiences while traveling in buses.A few to laugh at, few disappointing, few to remember and cherish, and a few to forget. We find people of all ages groups; the kids crying, youngsters joking and kidding around, the middle and old have discussions, seroious or otherwise over topics like sports, health and politics, and yea auties busy in gossips, in just one meet they exchange numbers and even teach each other a recipe or two.

When I was young I used to wonder why the bus conductors in Kolkata would shout all the localities the bus plies to, every time the bus stops. But now when I am at Chennai where language is such a huge barrier, I wish the Chennai conductors were like them. It’s a tough job now for me to explain the place where I need to go and then understand the bus numbers that a person comes up with.

I also remember reading/hearing stories from by friends in school and college about a few “naughty” things that keep happening in buses, where people lose things other than cell phones, money and wallets, but never believed them.

But then my recent experiences are hinting that there might be an element of truth to some of the stories. Some of us, who travel frequently by buses would have come across some mushy things that keep happening here and there, but then I couldn’t believe my eyes when things went few steps further.
The next experience is more embarassing to describe. It was around 8:15 AM and i boarded my usual bus for office. The bus was a little more crowded than normal and i was having a tough time to get stable, an uncle pushing from left, a school guy on my foot, and the aunty to my right howling at the uncle, to stop getting touchy. While i was still trying to figure out the Tamil gaalis that were flowing, i felt a hand moving over mine. At first i thought may be its coz of the rush, and tried to find some gap; but then the hand followed.. So the situation i believe is now easy for you to guess, so i had to make good efforts to shift my position and find a more comfortable place to stand…

Well now i believe that bus are really for ALL!!!!

Don’t Always Dare to be different..
Welcome to Chennai. Land of Idly,Chutney, Sambar, Vada, dosa, and Filter coffee, and yea how can I forget the long list of rice items which run into pages on each Menu card be it a road side hotel or the star restaurants.
Well I remember reading and forwarding a number of funny mails regarding some of the funny facets of the food habits of Chennaites, like
- Even dogs in Chennai feed on curd rice;
- Paani Puri or the Gol gappas are dipped in Sambar and what not.
but then I was surprised to note that they are actually not just over dose of exaggeration as I excepted them to be, but then now I believe that there does exist a certain element of truth in this.
Daily at work I find my colleagues, having either curd rice or other colourful rice items or as a change dosas for lunch. The only thing that varies everyday is the colour of the chutneys and pickles that they carry alongside.

But the most memorable moment was when I and a colleague tried to be different and ended up paying the price for it. On the streets of T Nagar, we found of a number of eateries. I couldn’t control my laughter when I noticed a stall named “kolkatta chats” selling items like “bhav pagii”(pav bhaji ..i suppose), “channa masala”, “channa samosa”,”beel puri” and I couldn’t scroll down….and the hotels who had got the spellings right always claimed that the junk that i prefer were over and hence not available
Looking at the list my colleague insisted on having Pav Bhaji, I promised her that I would try it out only under one condition provided we find a place which atleast spells the items right. Then we ended at a pretty posh looking sweet shop, with a decent sized snacks corner. It was here that I had my first Pav Bhaji at Chennai. My colleague was very happy to note that a plate of Pav Bhaji at Rs 25, almost half the price at Mumbai. So we ordered a Pav Bhaji each and had it full. Then we wished to try something more, we ordered a plate of Bhel Puri and Cutlet Channa. This is where we went a little overboard and expected them to good. It proved to be a costly mistake; the Cutlet Channa hardly had any piece of cutlet and the Channa was barely boiled. We felt like eating a half cooked dish and put it aside. Then we looked on to the other delicacy waiting for us, Bhel puri. Filled with a thick layer of Sev we expected the Bhel to be really tasty put it required just one spoon to get the real taste of it. Then we required was a stare and we silently walked off.

It didn’t end there, after a bus journey to home here am I shuttling between my bedroom and bathroom; and i also recieved a call from the same colleague who accompanied in this endeavour, that she is down with fever.

So the lesson learnt: When at Chennai, be a Chennaite;eat Idly, Dosa and rice and drink filter Kaapi(coffee).